Spearheaded by Kathy Black, director of La Casa de las Madres, a domestic violence shelter, the billboard was a not-so-subtle dig at Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who said shortly after being charged with domestic violence battery that it was “a private matter, a family matter.” (We bet he wishes those words had never crossed his lips, but then he’s probably wishing he could rewrite the past three months entirely.)

Black raised thousands of dollars for the billboard and even had to put a halt to the campaign because money kept coming in. So starting Wednesday, five smaller billboards with the same phrase in Spanish will go up around the Mission District.

“It’s in the immigrant community where you find the most, let’s just say, suppression,” Black said. “People don’t say anything. They’re in fear.”

The fear of speaking out can come into play even more for immigrant women — such as Mirkarimi’s wife, who is from Venezuela — who worry about deportation or losing the right to stay with their children. Usually, those fears are entirely unfounded, domestic violence advocates say.

“This case really mirrors so many of the cases we see here,” Black said, adding she wanted to put up some Cantonese signs, but couldn’t find available billboard space in Chinatown.

“He said he looks forward to dealing with his anger and arrogance. What about his domestic violence?” Black asked. “There’s a big difference between owning anger and arrogance and owning a choice to abuse somebody.”